The Congressional Progressive Caucus met with occupy representatives about legislation and also released today a new bill called the Restore the American Dream for the 99% Act, a combination of stimulative job creation measures, progressive taxation, a funding cut to draw down current wars and other measures popular with the mainstream of the country.

The biggest problem with the White House’s definitional strategy on the American Jobs Act was that Democrats didn’t really give it the full-throated support it needed to draw that contrast. By the end of last week, the White House was circling the wagons on that, and Democratic leaders stepped out to say that the jobs plan would have the support of the caucus. But those initial grumblings really hurt the unified message.

Are we on the way toward the same problem with the deficit reduction plan delivered today, similarly designed to draw contrast between taxes on millionaires or cuts to vital programs? So far, this looks a bit better.

There is now a deal, and Speaker Boehner needs Democratic votes to pass it because of his unruly and recalcitrant TeaParty membership, members of the Progressive Caucus must stop the deal. By stopping the deal at the last minute, the House Progressive Caucus forces President Obama to use his constitutional authority to ignore an illegal law that questions America’s public debt: the debt ceiling.

Kill the deal. Fourteen-four or Bust!

Yesterday Grijalva was perfectly willing to hand over his Congressional authority to a new Catfood II Super Congress to slash Social Security and Medicare when he vote for the all-cuts Reid bill.

As near as I can tell, the only thing the Gang of Six has made more likely is default. It’s essentially the same deal that Eric Cantor and John Boehner rejected because it included tax increases. Maybe the increases are so vague and the abolition of the alternative minimum tax so attractive that this changes the perception among House Republicans, but I’m not sure why we should believe that. This is the group that passed the Cut, Cap and Balance Act yesterday, for a frame of reference. Indeed, John Boehner’s office said the plan “appears to fall short” of House goals.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus has responded to President Barack Obama, who said progressives would have to be “sold” on deficit reduction. Specifically, he claimed that “if you are a progressive, you should be concerned about debt and deficit just as much as if you’re a conservative.”

The honor for closing speaker tonight goes to progressive favorite Rep. Keith Ellison (DFL-MN). His remarks will be preceded by words from Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD), and State Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ). Cenk Uygur hosts. With music from Outernationals and Jill Sobule.

Washington was buzzing yesterday about a Washington Post story detailing the cost of the Afghanistan conflict, and how that may be a constraint on continuing the war. First of all, I don’t really believe this….just read some of the quotes, from hawks like Howard Berman and Norm Dicks, in that piece. They’re not talking about wasted funds, they’re talking about a war that has failed. And they’ve consciously shifted toward getting out.

House Democrats, after taking an internal vote, decided against bringing up the Obama-brokered tax deal in its current form.

We deserve to see precisely which ConservaDems think that maintaining the tax rates from the last 10 years, a time of the worst wage and employment growth in postwar history, represents good economic sense. At least the leadership would then be seen as putting up a fight. I agree that you can sometimes win by losing by standing on principle and using that as the basis to make your case.